Why (Almost) Everyone Hates The Ghostbusters Reboot? (And How To Fix The Issues)

Source, "Who You Gonna Call?"

Welcome to the modern age of cinema, wherein old, classic, legendary masterpieces are set for supposedly updated revisions for the most unnecessary purposes possible. From completely unoriginal theatrical takes on your favorite cult classics such as the RoboCop reboot, and much more unoriginal television adaptations such as Damien, not a single film is safe from gaining a second silver screen life. Last month, audiences saw the release of a female-led Ghostbusters reboot, with critics unexpectedly praising the film, but not as much praise as the original movies. However, while critics shower some praise for the movie, audiences remain skeptic and completely unconvinced that the reboot is not worth a single dime. With critics and audiences once more divided on their opinions, Dateline Movies dissects these concerns piece-by-piece, again from both the perspectives of both a critic and a moviegoer, and provide solutions for them to avoid if ever anybody is going to do another reboot. Also, in case if you are asking, no we still have not watched the reboot yet, but I will just wait until it hits basic cable with an open mind.

Source, New Team, New Movie

1. Forced Political Agenda Feels Forced (Gender Bending)

Do you know that feeling when you are indulging yourself with a very delicious food but you are unable to truly enjoy it because there are flies constantly buzzing all over you? Well, forced diversity in movies, especially for die-hard movie fans such as us, it feels basically like that scenario. While everyone is up for some much needed diversity, nobody will enjoy something that is only made just to cater to others' needs at the sacrifice of an overall high-quality movie. This issue, which is pretty much getting all too familiar, is one of the many reasons why many audiences are much more annoyed than enthused for a movie, and is a clear warning sign that a lot of movies are much more keen on getting box office returns than delivering good entertainment. While the movie itself was praised, Star Trek Beyond can be an example because it experienced some diversity-related controversy when they made fan-favorite character Sulu gay. In addition, no one, and I mean no one, likes double standards, especially if a film starring women is being promoted. Just because some of us are simply not that excited for the flick's release does not make us sexist.

The Solution: Let us all be honest here. An all-female Ghostbusters movie does sound somewhat interesting on paper and pen, as this can be a potential gateway for more stories to explore. And yes, we really could use some more female protagonists on the big screen, and that is a very good idea! However, do not just create gender-bent characters for the sake of promoting a political agenda. Something that is forced onto a movie will always end-up being its gravest weak point. If they really do want to promote diversity, the writers should make it feel natural and necessary, and while some may remain doubtful, it will be easier for the world at large to open-up to the new Ghostbusters.

Source, "Answer The Call!"

2. Pretty Please, Just Stop With The Reboots!

Seriously, reboots are at this point more or less an attempt to earn a box office jackpot than a worthy remaster of a cinematic marvel. While there have obviously been really great reboots, not because of the source material that they used but rather due to how much they put onto the table, we can all admit that about a lot of them are just really, really bad. Now, this is where the flick received about a half of its negative feedback from audiences. Rebooting a movie, especially if it is a classic movie, will ruffle plenty of feathers. Take The Amazing Spider-Man series as an example. That film series had the potential to be a good reboot, but it only retold the exact same story with some mediocre additions. Also, does a reboot not consider all the time and effort made by the original creators of their craft wasted?

The Solution: While reboots do offer much more creative freedom for the new staff to work on, why not just make it a continuation of the original film series instead of changing everything that everyone of us know and love? Would that not be a better alternative? Just imagine. What if the original Ghostbusters have retired, and they passed-on the mantles to their protegees? That would be very great for a movie, and it will not do anything to desecrate the original works. Also, didn't Dan Aykroyd made a script for a Ghostbusters sequel? Why not just use that as a basis for the film, and just add some tweaks here and there? And speaking of a canceled Ghostbusters movie, I tried to find the script itself, but to no avail. Here is hoping that we could feature that in a post.

Source, You Know There's A Problem When The Number of Dislikes Overshadow The Amount of Likes

3. A Really Terrible First Impression (Including The Soundtrack)

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", and this beauty will often be based on first impressions. Just like in the world of movies, trailers and teasers are released through the Internet for, as a fellow user once wrote, "the audience to get a taste of what the movie has in store, as well as for them to give initial judgments". I do not exactly remember the entire phrase, but whatever it is that I typed, it still has the same meaning, and what we said is rightfully so. The first teaser for Ghostbusters was met with a universal dislike, even going as far as to get the nickname of the "Most Disliked Video on YouTube". It is very evident here that the film suffered another major marketing problem with the quality of the trailer. Based on some YouTube comments of the video, users are automatically turned-down due to the corny jokes and unpolished computer generated imagery, with some of them already hating the movie ever since the news surfaced on the Sony Hack event. The soundtrack does not sort things out either, as Fall Out Boy and Missy Elliot's version of the memorable Ray Parker Jr.-made theme song is met with a mixed reception.

The Solution: You know what? They really should just hire a better marketing staff. Like what we said on our caption above, there is automatically a problem when the amount of dislikes outweigh the number of likes. Had they have a much more responsible and a much more serious team, the trailer would have been met with a much more positive feedback. In addition, it is very clear that the jokes itself could use some polishing, which we would talk about in the next section. While I am not saying the soundtrack is that bad (I would rate it a 5/10), they should at least make some tunes that are of course modern, but at least open to all audiences. This soundtrack smells too much of a modern teenage spirit for me.

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4. A Lack of Original and Humorous Jokes

Jokes are the very essence of a comedy film, because if it was a comedy movie but there was an obvious joke void, then I must be watching boring lecture on video. Most of the jokes that you would usually hear in the movie are either juvenile, which includes gross-out humor that would appeal to the teenage demographic, referential, which includes mentions or specific name-drops of various media figures, or visual, which involves sight gags. All of which are decent and all. Without the intelligence needed to keep things in perspective, these jokes would rather make audiences' eyes roll. The trailer, as we said before, did not entirely cause belly laughs, because the jokes themselves are, in the eyes of audiences everywhere, corny and lazily executed.

The Solution: Well, this is very simple and pretty obvious enough, hire writers who really know how to make a joke, and not just simply rely on usual gimmicks such as one-liners. But then again, that is only based on what we have seen on the trailer (Again, I still have not watched this yet). Given that Paul Feig has made some particularly funny movies recently, the reboot seems to be in the right hands, I guess. Still, these are useful reminders to follow.

Man, I hope that we are not ripping-off Cinema Sins in any form, given that we seem to be finding some flaws and providing some solutions that may or may not be beneficial. (They are an awesome channel by the way.) Also, thank goodness for a no-school day. If it weren't for this day, we would not have another post, but it is still pretty sad that today was our third examination day. Well, there goes my long weekend. Up next, something that involves original songs for movies, some animated movie reviews, and some short posts probably. Before we exit, here are some songs from the Ghostbusters reboot. My sister likes them, but like I said, they are not my type of music. We also added the original theme song for good measure. Stay tuned for more Dateline Movies!